Carrie Peters has no obvious signs of illness other than a pale complexion. Even so, she suffers from an illness that could end her life any time.

Peters, 29, has been HIV-positve for 11 years. She is touring Southeast Missouri this week telling students about living with AIDS and encouraging them to choose abstinence as a way to avoid getting the disease.

"Dying from AIDS is a long, tortuous, agonizing death," she told students at Cape Girardeau Central High School Monday. "I'm well aware that this subject can be depressing: I live with it every day."

The Central High School address was one of two presentations Peters made Monday. She also spoke at Notre Dame High School and has appearances scheduled this week at Bloomfield, Delta, Doniphan, Leopold and Scott City high schools, Poplar Bluff and Kelly junior high schools, and Three Rivers Community College.

Peters found out she had AIDS when she was 20 after trying to donate blood at a blood drive. She later learned she contracted the virus from her boyfriend, with whom she remained in a relationship for four more years before moving to Kansas City to join an AIDS support group.

"If I had not found out that I had it, I would be dead right now," Peters told students.

Since then, her boyfriend has died, and she is the sole survivor of her 23-member support group.

She stressed how disabling the disease. A theater major in college when she learned she had the disease, Peters left school and returned home to Lee's Summitt. She was categorized as disabled and began receiving government aid in the form of food stamps and disability checks. She also relies on her parents for support.

"I'm 29 years old and still relying on my parents to buy things for me," she said. "You have no idea how hard it is not to be able to earn your own way."

Peters takes 40 vitamins and 10 pills each day. She is taking the "cocktail medications" that doctors believe suppresses the AIDS virus. She said her T-Cell count is higher than it has been since she was diagnosed.

A healthy T-cell count ranges from 900 to 1,500 cells. Peters' T-cell count was 440 at last count.

"The best explanation I have for T-cells is they're like the generals of the immune system's army," Peters told students. "They tell the immune system where to go, and without them the system gets confused."

Students at Central High School dominated most of Peters' presentation with questions about living with the AIDS virus. Many questions centered around reaction by others to the disease, her thoughts on the chances of finding a cure, and whether she is afraid of dying.

Peters said her family has been supportive of her and she has made rather than lost friends because of her illness. Some people have expressed fear that the virus could mutate and be transmitted a different way, but she encourages them to educate themselves about the disease.

"I don't expect them to ever find a cure, although someday I do believe this will be a chronic, manageable disease like diabetes," she said. "I'm not afraid of death, but I am very afraid of the dying process. I just want to educate you so you won't put yourselves at risk."